The present invention relates to a door closing device in a vehicle and particularly to a door closing device in a vehicle, having a latch engagable with a striker of the vehicle to enable the latch to move from a half-latched position to a full-latched position.
In a conventional door closing device, for example, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,466,021A to Ishihara et al., closing of a door allows a latch engagable with a striker fixed to a vehicle to move from an open position to a half-latched position. A half-latch detecting sensor detects the half-latched position to enable a passive lever to move from an original position in a closing direction by a motor thereby moving the latch in the half-latched position to a full-latched position with the move to the closing direction. After the latch is moved to the full-latched position, the passive lever is reversely rotated towards the original position by the motor.
However, in the door closing device in the US patent, for example, owing to wrong detection of the half-latch detecting sensor, the latch is moved from the open position to the full-latched position after the passive lever is moved from the original position in the closing direction by the motor. The latch engages with the passive lever to make it impossible for the passive lever to return to the original position. Such wrong operation is likely to cause damage such as deformation on the engagement portion to result in malfunction in the operation.
Also, in the structure in which the latch can be released from a striker by moving the passive lever from the original position to the releasing direction opposite to the closing direction, wrong operation likely makes the door difficult to open.